Silver Prison
by Shaman of Sarcasm
Summary: When you grow up in the Adderhead's silver mine, you grow up fast, or not at all.
1. Silver's Price

**Right, I don't Inkheart....I do, however, own this story...and most of the characters. Just not the Adderhead....or any _other_ recognizable characters.  
**

**This is my new story (Silver Prison), and I hope it proves a most enjoyable read...I had fun writing...**

**Chapter 1—Silver's Price**

Suzy brought the pickaxe up and over her head. Then, in one quick and decisive blow, brought it down to strike against the tunnel wall in front of her. She let a broad smile play across her face as she finally struck gold—or should she say silver? She worked in the Adderhead's silver mine. The Prince of Silver had to get his silver somehow…even if it did cost innocent children their lives. They lost several children due to cave-ins and starvation. Children Suzy knew.

Just like so many other people, Suzy hated the Adderhead. He didn't care that children lost their lives all because he was greedy. Why should he? The Adderhead was royalty after all. That's what Suzy liked to pretend she was. Royalty. She imagined her skin was no longer covered in soot, but, rather, it was as white as snow. Suzy would often let her imagination wander as she went about the familiar task of striking stone. Sometimes, her imagination took her to the colorful streets of Ombra; other times, she would roam The Wayless Wood with the Motley Folk. Suzy thought the only reason she hadn't died yet, was because of her imagination. It had sprinkled seeds of hope into her heart, and finally, after so many years, those seeds had begun to grow.

"Suzy?"

Startled by the sudden sound, Suzy spun around. She was faced by the boyish face of Tick. Tick wasn't his real name. Like many other miners, he couldn't remember it, but that didn't matter. He quickly adopted Tick as a name. And, like all the other child miners, he was short. He was, however, special; because, just like Suzy, he had arrived in the mines five years ago. Hardly any children made it past a year, but both Tick and Suzy were lucky. They managed to find silver at least once a week, allowing them to be fed. The Adderhead had made explicit orders that only the children who found silver were to be fed.

"Alright, Tick, what do you have for me today? Did we lose anyone?"

Tick smiled from ear to ear. "Nope! Vipe says we're almost through, too."

Suzy sucked in a sharp breath of air. Almost through…they were almost through. Suzy's eyes began to dance with joy. All of the enslaved children had secretly been building a second way out of the mine. They did this at night, when the Adder's guards thought they would all be sleeping. The guards couldn't fit through the mine's narrow entrance to check on them either. The guards were mainly there to keep the children from escaping; they were smart enough to figure out that the children would work without being told. After all, if you didn't work, you didn't get food. Something they all needed.

"Did Vipe tell you how much longer?" Suzy asked, her momentary joy fading.

Tick hesitated. "He, uh, said something 'bout it, but…"

Suzy picked up where Tick left off. "You don't remember,"

"Yeah…sorry, Suzy. I was in such a hurry to get here an' tell you how close—"

Suzy laid a hand on Tick's shoulder. "I understand, Tick. No need to explain." And, with that being said, Suzy walked in the direction where Vipe was sure to be.

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"Jarse, ya moron! Watch where ya swing that thing!" Vipe exclaimed as he dove to the ground, right as a pickaxe sailed over where his head had just been. Vipe rose to his feet, face crimson out of rage. "No wonder so many of us die," Vipe said, anger lying under the surface of his words. "We have people like you working down here."

A few children chuckled, while Jarse bent his head. Vipe's words had buried themselves underneath his skin, and they were eating away at him like acid. It was true, people died down here not just because the Adderhead didn't feed them, but because people like him made mistakes. Jarse felt wetness run down his cheek. He was crying. He was crying just like a little boy. Jarse might have only been ten, but the little boy inside him had died long ago.

Jarse looked up as Vipe started grumbling to himself. "Sorry," Vipe said, a sour expression on his face. Jarse had to smile at that. Getting an apology out of Vipe was like teaching a blind man how to read—impossible.

"Now," Vipe continued, while picking up Jarse's dropped pickaxe. "Get back to work. We're almost through. Almost through…" Vipe whispered the words as if this were all a dream, and saying them any louder would shatter it.

Vipe turned away from Jarse, and came face to face with Suzy. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but although he was older than Suzy, he felt that Suzy had more power in this operation that him. After all, Suzy was the one who had organized it all. She had come to him with the idea, and since the younger children looked up to Vipe, he had enacted it. The children, knowing what the final outcome would be, had readily agreed to help.

"Tick says we're close to finishing…" Suzy started, "How much longer?"

Vipe smiled mockingly. "No time for hello's?"

"You wish we could afford to waste time," Suzy replied in a serious tone.

"Relax, relax, it was a joke. Besides, dreams and wishes are all we are allowed to have down here." Vipe trailed his hand along the stone wall. "I think I'm going to miss this place, too. Don't look at me like that," He snapped, taking in Suzy's expression. She obviously thought him crazy. Well, he had lived in a hole in the ground for so many years, he might as well be. "I've lived down here since I was younger than you; I have become quite attached to this place. All the same, I still could use some fresh air."

"Then how much longer?" Suzy pressed. Vipe always got this way around her, she had a feeling it was because she was a girl. Thus, easier to talk to.

Vipe ran a hand through his hair while he went through the calculations, as if for the hundredth time. "At the rate we are digging now, I say a few weeks at the most; days at the least."

Suzy barely resisted the urge to jump in the air in celebration. With the low ceiling, that probably wouldn't be the best idea.

"Do they know?" She asked, nodding her head towards the other children.

"Our childhood might have been taken from us long ago, but we haven't lost the ability to tell when somethin's up."

Suzy just stared at him. "So, do they know?"

"Yes," Came the quick reply.

"Alright then," Suzy said slowly, lost in thought. "I guess I should--"

"Suzy!"

Suzy turned at the calling of her name. "Tick?" She said, horrified.

It wasn't the fact that Tick had shown up out of nowhere that had shocked her. Rather, it was the fact that Tick had brought the White Women with him.

**So....your thoughts on this? Oh, and I might have just snuck this chapter up here without my beta giving it a one over...Shh! Don't tell.**


	2. Silver's Caress

_**I....am not Cornelia Funke, so, I guess this means I don't own Inkheart, Inkspell, or Inkdeath. Dang.**_

**Well, this chapter didn't take an incredibly long time to get here. You just imagined that it took over a month. After all, it doesn't take me a month to write such a terrible chapter as this...Or does it? Okay, it does. I apologize for how long this took, etc...The next chapter shouldn't take this long...and if it does, I apologize in advance.**

**Chapter 2—Silver's Caress**

Tick started trembling. He had always been afraid of the White Women, ever since he saw them take away his mom…and then the Adderhead's men had come. But things had worked out okay. He had found Suzy, and Suzy always took care of him. He was glad for that, because sometimes, he didn't manage to find silver, but Suzy was nice. Suzy gave him some of her silver. Sometimes, Tick felt this thing in his breast when he was around Suzy; of course, Tick didn't know what it was. The closest thing he had ever felt to this feeling was when his mom had picked him up and held him close to her. That feeling was old though, his mother had been dead for years. Many, many, many years.

"Tick?"

Tick's trembling stopped. Suzy's voice always managed to calm him no matter the situation.

"I need you to tell me what happened. Why are the White Women here? Was there an accident?"

Tick looked up into Suzy's eyes. They were the same color as a reptile's: green.

"Tick?" Suzy repeated, her concern growing.

Tick's watched Vipe walk up to him, his head slowly tilting upwards. Tick was probably the shortest kid in the mines, so he had to look up to almost everyone. Vipe laid his cool fingers on Tick's forehead, making Tick shiver again.

"Shock," Vipe said as if he were the Barn Owl. "That would explain the detachment…"

"How do you—" Suzy began, but Vipe had obviously had to answer these questions before as he quickly cut her off with:

"I was an apprentice to the Barn Owl before they took me away."

"Oh," Suzy said, turning back to Tick. Now that she looked at him closely, she could see that underneath all the soot, he was deathly pale. His skin had turned ashen and it looked as if his soul had abandoned him. "Tick!" She shrieked, slapping him across the face in the hopes that it would bring him back to this world. Nothing. Suzy turned to Vipe, "Is it…is it possible to die of shock?" Suzy asked, casting a wary glance at the White Women.

Vipe hesitated, concern flitting across his features. He new Suzy was attached to Tick, almost everyone was, and that was dangerous. The mortality rate in the mines was high, so it was wise not get too attached to each other. "Yes," He said, gauging Suzy's reaction. She hadn't done anything but nod her head, and that worried Vipe.

"Tick," Vipe said sternly, looking the small boy in the eye. "No one's going to hurt you, so snap out of it! You have to tell us what you saw, then you can go shrivel up in a hole and let life pass you by." Vipe regretted every word he said. He didn't like having to be a jerk, but sometimes, for things to get done, he had to be one. "What?" He asked, looking at Suzy. Her expression had changed from one of passive to one of aggressive. She wanted to kill him for what he had just said, and, quite frankly, Vipe didn't care. Just so long as his barbed words accomplished something was all that mattered.

"Please, Tick, tell us." Suzy pleaded, tears springing to her eyes. She instantly dashed them away, tears were a sign of weakness, and Suzy had gone through too much to be weak.

At Suzy's pleading, something in Tick seemed to awaken, because tears cascaded down his cheeks.

"Jarse got…Jarse got hurt!" Tick said between the sobs that were bursting from his small body. "He…he was walkin' and then a rock came down on him. Suzy, you gotta help him. He's hurt. Jarse is hurt."

"Tick, I'm sorry, but, I don't think we'll be able to help Jarse," Suzy said, trying to fight back tears. If what Tick said was true, the chances of Jarse still being alive were slim.

"No!" Tick shouted, defiant as ever. "You have to save him, Suzy. You're the only one."

Suzy was about to tell Tick that putting all his faith in her was a bad idea, when she noticed something odd. Vipe wasn't moving. His chest rose steadily as he breathed, but other than that, nothing. He didn't blink, or shoo the moths that were fluttering next to his ears away. He just stood there like a great oak that even the wind could not force to bend.

"Vipe, you okay?" Suzy questioned. As if Tick wasn't giving her enough worry, now she had to make sure that Vipe hadn't caught something.

Vipe licked his lips. "No, Suzy, I don't think I am," He said, blinking for the first time in minutes. "Suzy, it's my fault. It's my fault Jarse is…" Vipe refused to admit that Jarse could be dead. Maybe Tick was mistaken. Maybe it was somebody else…

"Stop acting like a baby, Vipe. You know it wasn't your fault, so stop trying to blame this all on yourself. Now," Suzy said, turning her attention to Tick. "Take us to where it…where it happened."

As they came upon the site, frightened murmuring met their ears. It would seem that Tick wasn't the only one who knew.

"Who do ya think it was?" Suzy heard somebody ask. She did not listen for a reply, fearing the answer would be Jarse.

From where she was standing, all Suzy could see was the backs of heads. "Step aside," She shouted, her words echoing off the rock walls. As being one of the older miners, the other children would bend to her will. Even if Suzy did not use her power often, seniority did have its benefits.

As the web of children slowly parted, Suzy steeled herself for the site she was going to see. This would not be the first time she had seen a dead body, but no matter how many times she looked upon such sites, Suzy could never get used to them.

Taking slow, deep breaths, Suzy stepped forward. What she saw instantly brought tears to her eyes.

Jarse's mangled body lay pinned beneath a gigantic rock, his arm twitching slightly. A trail of blood slid slowly down his arm, forming a red puddle at his fingertips. Suzy turned away, the image forever burned in her mind. This is what happened down here in the mines. And one day, she and the rest of the miners would have their revenge. No matter how long it took, she would make the Adderhead pay.

**So, was this chapter worth the wait, or was this chapter crap?**


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